Early Stages of Language Development in Children with Severe Hearing Impairment

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the early development in young children with severe hearing impairment. Four girls whose language developed relatively favorably in spite of severe hearing losses of approximately 80dB or more were selected for this purpose. Language education was begun by their mothers who participated in our home training program when the girls were one year and five months old, one year and seven months old, one year and ten months old, and two years and four months old respectively. Data was collected through the use, by their mothers, of special diary to evaluate the psychos logical development and the development of language comprehension as well as verbal and nonverbal expressions, as observed in their deaf children. The results obtained are as follows:
1. The development of language comprehension preceeded the growth of vocabulary in all cases.
2. Pointing or inquisitive behavior emerged between the ages of two years and two years and eleven months.
3. As soon as pointing behavior emerged, vocabulary began to increase rapidly, and infantile words, which previously held only generalized meanings, began to differentiate into individual words with specific meanings.
4. At this time, most mothers commented that their child had found “All things have their own names.”
As far as these four cases are concerned, the findings mentioned above suggest the conclusion that there is a critical period for language development in young children with severe hearing impairment. The rationale for this critical period may be explained by Vygotsky's theory that the curve of development of thought and speech, till then separate, meet and join to initiate a new form of behavior in which speech begins to serve the intellect and thoughts begin to be spoken.